But external services are of no value in the sisfht of God, any farther than they are accompanied with vita] piety —
[On many occasions God declared his contempt for outward observances, in comparison of spiritual obedience : " I will have mercy, and not sacrifice :" " Behold, to obey is better than sacri- fice ; and to hearken, than the fat of rams." By the prophet Isaiah, God replies to those who boasted of " the multitude of their sacrifices ;" and tells them, that the whole course of their services, unaccompanied as they were with real piety, were an
utter abomination in his siglif" Even whilst bringing his
people through the wilderness, he had explicitly declared to them, by Balaam, that it was " not by offering thousands of rams, or rivers of oil, or by giving their first-born for their transgression, the fruit of their body for the sin of their soul, that they were to please him, but by doing justly, and loving mercy, and walking humbly with their God®." hi like manner we are told by our blessed Lord, that it is " to no purpose that we pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, if we neglect the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and truth *^;" and that to draw nigh to God with our lips whilst our heart is far from him, is nothing but vile hypocrisy s. Indeed a moment's consideration may con- vince us, that outward services, of whatever kind, cannot be of any value in the sight of God, except as expressions or vehicles of inward piety : for they may be performed without any good principle in the soul ; yea, they may proceed from extremely vile and corrupt principles, such as pride, and ostentation, and self- righteousness ; and they may most abound, not only where all manner of iniquity is harboured, but as a cloak and cover to that iniquity*^. In a word, " a form of godliness, where the power of it is denied," is the consummation of all ungod- liness'.]
This is an offensive truth indeed, but it is indis- pensably necessary to be received —
[How offensive a truth this is, may be seen by the way in which the hearers of the first martyr, Stephen, resented it, even before it was actually declared, and when they discovered it only as the ultimate scope of his argument. Stephen had given a summary view of God's dealings with his people from the very begimiing : and the scope of his argument was, that as God had a people before the Mosaic dispensation commenced, so he would after its termination ; as had been intimated by the prophet Isaiah, who represents God as pouring contempt even upon the Tem- ple itself, in comparison of a broken and contrite heart. This pas- sage having been cited by Stephen, the whole audience were filled
with
^ Isai. i, 11 — 15. * Mic. vi. 6 — 8. ^ Matt, xxiii. 23. « Matt. XV. 8. ^ Malt, xxiii. 14. ' 2 Tim. iii. 1—5.